


Light in the Dark

by scorperion21



Category: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Angst with a happy-ish ending, M/M, comforting albus, sad scorpius, scorbus have nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 18:44:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18744889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scorperion21/pseuds/scorperion21
Summary: Scorpius Malfoy had had nightmares for as long as he could remember. They changed over the years, but they were the only constant in his life. That was until he met Albus Potter, who would do anything to chase the nightmares away.





	Light in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> i love comfort fic they will probably make up about 90% of my posts. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading! This is my first fic I have posted to the public so any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thanks!  
> you can find me on twitter at: @scorperion21

Scorpius Malfoy had had nightmares for as long as he could remember. They changed over the years, but they were always there.

First, when he was young, they were of never being able to go to Hogwarts; something he had dreamed of from the moment he heard his mother and father speaking of it.

Then, when he heard of the rumours that surrounded his parentage, they were of Lord Voldemort rising again and coming back to find him, to kill his parents, so that he could be raised as the Dark Lord’s own.

When he was older and his mother fell weaker and more ill, they were of her dying – the never ending worries of his waking consciousness bleeding into his sleeping one. And then those nightmares came true, and his mother passed away, but she didn’t stop making nightly appearances inside Scorpius’ head. She was always there, just out of reach, and Scorpius knew if he caught up with her she would be returned to him again. Only he could never catch her, and instead he woke up in a cold sweat, his heart pounding, before realising she would never come back to him and then he would bury his face in his pillow to cry himself back to sleep.

After the escapades of his and Albus’ fourth year at Hogwarts he never knew what nightmares he was going to get – there was now so much to choose from. But the ones that frightened him most were the ones in which he visited the dark universe – where he was the Scorpion King and tortured muggleborns for sport, where Voldemort never died, where Harry Potter was murdered, and where Albus Potter – his best friend – had never existed. It was these nightmares that would force him awake, would force him to immediately seek out Albus just for reassurance that this in fact wasn’t that horrible, awful place. And Albus – so surly and unresponsive to the rest of the world – was wonderfully obliging, having had an awful lot of nightmares himself following their meeting with Delphi, and made sure to always leave a little gap in the curtains around his bed so that inevitably when Scorpius awoke with a start he would be immediately soothed by the sight of his sleeping best friend. Existing, alive, unharmed.

_Scorpius was trembling in a corner of the library, feverishly flicking through_ Hogwarts: A History _– although not the version he knew. This was the newer, more horrible version in which they wrote about the Battle of Hogwarts and Lord Voldermort’s triumph over the members of Dumbledore’s Army and the Order of the Phoenix. There, in great detail, was described the demise of Harry Potter, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Fred Weasley… the list was endless. He slumped forward, letting the book fall to the floor, and stared out of the window without seeing. Everything was so wrong here, and he just wanted to go back to his own world. He knew he couldn’t yet though, not until he found out what had gone wrong with Cedric Diggory after the second task of the Triwizard Tournament._

_“Mr Malfoy?” a sharp, girlish voice he had grown to hate sounded from behind him. He closed his eyes for a second, steeling himself, and looked up._

_“Yes Professor Umbridge?” he tried for a cocky smirk he thought that this version of himself might wear, but it made him feel sick to his stomach so he stopped._

_“I’ve been waiting for you Mr Malfoy.” Professor Umbridge said in the same girlish voice._

_“Waiting for me?” Scorpius tried not to look confused but he couldn’t help it – there was just so much here that didn’t make sense._

_“Yes. It’s time for detention – or had you forgotten?” Professor Umbridge simpered, with a dangerous look in her eye that made Scorpius believe she knew something wasn’t quite right._

_“No, no of course I hadn’t Professor. I was just on my way.” Scorpius tried for another smile before standing up. He wondered what he could be getting detention for – he had never had one where he came from, and he was led to believe that this universe was his kingdom._

_“Good. Follow me.” Professor Umbridge turned on her heel and marched out of the library, Scorpius following quickly behind her. She led the way up to her office, where standing in front of the desk was a young mousey haired boy Scorpius didn’t know – in this life, or the other one._

_“Well off you go Mr Malfoy.” Professor Umbridge urged._

_“Off I go?” Scorpius was confused again._

_“Yes – or had you forgotten that it was your idea to start using the Cruciatus Curse on unruly first years?” A smile came to Professor Umbridge’s face that made Scorpius feel sick to his stomach again – although the smile made him feel nothing compared to the words she had spoken._

_“You want me to use the Cruciatus Curse?” Scorpius whispered, horror struck._

_“Yes Mr Malfoy, I do. Unless you want me to tell your father you disobeyed me?” Professor Umbridge said quietly and the danger was present in her voice this time. Scorpius swallowed, thinking; he was more scared of the father this universe had spawned then he was of anything else._

_“Okay.” Scorpius’ voice was a whisper again as he took his out his wand from his robes pocket. He had never performed this before, and never wanted to, never wanted to become the kind of person that most people thought he would do, but he knew the theory and he knew that he had no choice. Putting as much feeling as he possibly could into his words, he pointed his wand at the boy._

_“Crucio!” The boy screamed, falling to the floor and curling against the onslaught of the spell, but then suddenly the boy changed. It was his mother, and then Rose, and then his father writhing on the floor with pain. Scorpius tried to stop, but he couldn’t pull away, the spell kept going. And then Albus was on the floor screaming, and his pain was Scorpius’ pain. Scorpius collapsed to the floor too, and his own voice joined the terrible noises that were coming from his best friend…_

Scorpius woke suddenly with a yell that forced him bolt upright, his heart pounding, sweat streaming down his face, his breathing fast and shallow. He was thankful it was the Christmas holidays and that everyone but Albus had gone home (apparently Professor McGonagall hadn't been joking about cancelling Christmas); the rest of their dorm made fun of them enough before they both started disrupting their sleep with nightmares. Scorpius tried to shake the nightmare off him, and glanced over at Albus’ bed – but this had far from a soothing effect on him. The bed was empty and still made, the curtains pulled all the way back. Scorpius stood up and stumbled over to the bed, placing a hand on the pillow just to make sure. It was cold. Not only was Albus not here, but he had not been here, perhaps for hours. And even though logic would dictate to Scorpius that Albus was somewhere inside the castle, it was too much for his panicked state to contain. He fell to his knees, clutching at the sheets on Albus’ bed spread and breaking out into tears, his head falling into the space between his hands. He could not have lost Albus. Not again.

Downstairs in the Slytherin common room, Albus Potter woke with a start. He wasn’t sure what had caused it, but his heart was pounding just a little faster than usual. Thankfully he had not had a nightmare; at least if he had, he could not remember it. Attributing it to his uncomfortable sleeping position, he sat up from the table by the fire unperturbed, and straightened out the parchment in front of him. He had been working on his History of Magic essay before he had fallen asleep – it seemed his father had been right about fifth year being hard. Albus has certainly noticed there was much more homework than before, and it was not unusual to see one of the other fifth years up late studying. Albus re-read his essay and sighed, stoppering his ink jar and packing his books and quill into his bag. He thought he had done the best he could do, but would ask Scorpius to look over it in the morning. Scorpius never stayed up late studying with him, and always bade him good night with a cheery “sleep is just as important as studying you know!”. Well, Albus thought, hauling his bag onto his shoulder, that’s easy for him to say. He was easily one of the smartest people Albus knew, and only needed to read something once before being able to remember it. 

With a yawn, Albus began walking up the stairs to the dormitory, looking forward to climbing into his bed for a proper sleep. Only he stumbled to a stop a few feet from his bed, shocked at the sight in front of him; Scorpius kneeling on the floor and sobbing into Albus’ bed spread. Albus’ heart started pounding again as he dropped his bag and flung himself by Scorpius’ side. He had, of course, realised what had happened and cursed himself for being so stupid as to fall asleep where his best friend couldn’t see him. Taking hold of Scorpius’ hands he pulled him gently away from the bed and into his arms; despite them deciding they were friends who didn’t hug they did find themselves doing it a lot more now. And Scorpius clung to Albus, sobbing into his shoulder.

“Hey, it’s alright Scorp, I’m right here.” Albus whispered into Scorpius’ ear, carding a hand through the blond hair.

“I had a horrible dream… I was in the other universe again… and then I was using the Cruciatus curse on you...and I woke up and you weren’t here.” Scorpius gasped between sobs.

“Well it’s alright, I’m here now. And I’m always going to be right here, and I know you would never hurt me. And my dad’s alive, and Professor Longbottom is alive, and Voldemort is gone.” Albus soothed, holding Scorpius tighter. Albus kept whispering calming words in Scorpius’ ear until Scorpius stopped crying. They stayed on the floor though, clung together for a moment longer, before Scorpius pulled back to sit on his heels and wipe at his face.

“I’m sorry.” Albus said sincerely.

“What are you sorry for?” Scorpius asked, genuinely confused.

“I shouldn’t have fallen asleep in the common room. I should have been here and then you wouldn’t have got so upset. I’m really sorry Scorp.”

“This is _not_ your fault Albus. It’s my fault for being so dependent on you. I should be able to wake up from a nightmare without having a break down because you’re not there!” Scorpius exclaimed, slapping his knees with his hands for emphasis as he so often did.

“But-“

“No! I’m sorry Albus but I’m not letting you apologise for something that isn’t your fault.” Scorpius interrupted. Albus shook his head in despair but couldn’t help a smile come to his face. 

“Fine. It’s not your fault either though.” Albus said, quirking one of his eyebrows up. Scorpius sighed.

“It is. All these nightmares I always have of you not being there – that was my fault. I did that Albus.”

“No you didn’t, _we_ did that. How many times do I have to tell you?” Albus didn’t want to get angry, not so soon after Scorpius had got upset, but they had had this argument a lot. Scorpius shrugged and looked up at Albus.

“Maybe a couple more times before I start to believe it?” he whispered. Scorpius looked so genuinely upset again that Albus couldn’t help but pulling him into another bone crushing hug. Scorpius melted into him, nestling into the crook of Albus’ neck like it was a space meant specifically for him.

“I’m so scared Albus. Every time I go to sleep I’m so scared we never really got back. I’m so scared you’re not going to be here when I wake up. I couldn’t handle that again.” Scorpius said in a broken whisper. Albus hugged him tighter, his heart breaking for the boy in his arms.

“I’m never going anywhere Scorp. Never.” Albus said fiercely, pulling away from Scorpius slightly so they could look each other in the eye.

“Promise?”

“I _promise._ ” Albus agreed, and the smile that stretched across Scorpius’ face almost blinded him. And then he did something they had never done before and kissed Scorpius on the cheek. He pulled back almost instantly, his own cheeks staining with a flush of red.

“Did you just kiss me?” Scorpius asked, his eyebrows knotting. “Is that something we do now?”

“It doesn’t have to be, it just felt like something I had to do.” Albus grudgingly explained with a shrug. Scorpius looked at him inscrutably for a second before he leant forward and kissed Albus on the cheek in return. The butterflies in Albus’ stomach were something new but, he thought as he helped Scorpius up off the floor, that was something they had days, and months, and _years_ to figure out. Right now he needed to be there for his best friend as they both sank beneath the waves of sleep once again.


End file.
